Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy has won the Mid Ulster Westminster by-election in
the seat previously held by his party colleague, Stormont deputy First
Minister Martin McGuinness.

Francie Molloy has won the Mid Ulster Westminster by-election in the seat Photo: PACEMAKER PRESS INTERNATIONAL

7:19AM GMT 08 Mar 2013

The party saw its majority substantially reduced from 15,363 at the 2010 General Election to 4,681, amid a lower turnout and the emergence of a unified unionist candidate, Nigel Lutton, as well as a reduced share of the vote for Sinn Fein.

The by-election campaign was played out under the shadow of a historic Troubles murder

The highly emotive contest saw Mr Molloy come face to face with Mr Lutton - the son of a former policeman whose murder the senior republican was alleged in the House of Commons to have had a role in.

Mr Molloy has always vehemently denied the claim levelled against him six years ago under parliamentary privilege by Upper Bann Democratic Unionist MP David Simpson that he was a suspect in the 1979 shooting of ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary reservist Frederick Lutton.

As predicted, there was no handshake between the victorious Sinn Fein politician and Mr Lutton at the declaration, although the unionist candidate did say the men exchanged hellos.

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In keeping with his party's abstentionist policy Mr Molloy, the outgoing deputy speaker at the Northern Ireland Assembly, will not take up his seat in the House of Commons.

Mr Molloy secured 17,462 votes ahead of Mr Lutton, who polled 12,781.

Of the remaining two candidates, Social Democratic and Labour Party MLA Patsy McGlone polled 6,478 votes and the Alliance party's Eric Bullick secured 487.

Speaking after his victory, Mr Molloy paid tribute to Mr McGuinness.

He said: "Martin is going to be a hard act to follow, I understand that, but we will try our best to do that and we will continue to build the process and work with everyone - I want to represent all the people of Mid Ulster, not just those who voted for me, not just the Sinn Fein support."

Mr Lutton had stood as an independent with the backing of Stormont's main unionist parties, all of whom stood aside in a bid to maximise the pro-Union vote.

The proportion of the vote secured by the Portadown undertaker was up nearly 2% on the combined total achieved by the various unionist candidates in 2010. The combined nationalist vote fell by the around the same degree.

"I would like to thank the voters of Mid Ulster for increasing the Unionist vote," Mr Lutton said after the declaration.

Mr McGuinness resigned from the Westminster seat he first won in 1997 late last year, insisting he wanted to focus on business at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The emergence of Mr Lutton as the unionist unity candidate had major ramifications for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

In the wake of the UUP's decision to back Mr Lutton, two of its high-profile Assembly Members - Basil McCrea and John McCallister - resigned in protest and have subsequently signalled their intent to form a new party.